The Killing Season Looks Into a Famous Series of Long Island Murders

When the remains of 10 sex workers were found along Gilgo Beach, Long Island, in 2010 and 2011, residents assumed the police would quickly crack the case. “In the age we live in, technology is so available,” says filmmaker Joshua Zeman, who was born on Long Island. “But then it became clear to us this case wasn’t going to be solved very quickly.”

Zeman and fellow documentarian Rachel Mills (pictured, with Zeman) set out to investigate, intending to make a film. Instead, the twists and turns led to The Killing Season, an eight-part docuseries on A&E

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In talking with law enforcement and the victims’ families and working with amateur crime solvers at online community Websleuths, the duo dug deeper into the widespread unsolved murders. “There’s a general perception we can just write off these women because they’re ‘drug-addicted prostitutes,’” Mills says, pointing to the rising opioid epidemic as a reason many of the victims turned to the sex industry. “It was important for us to humanize these women.”